Contents

INTRODUCTION: “THE TALK”

PART I. “THE INTERVENTION”
THE TOP REASONS AMERICAN
POLITICS AND SOCIETY ARE OUT-OF-WHACK

1. No We Can’t: Getting to No While Giving In

2. Money Can’t Buy Happiness (Just Food, Clothing,
Gas, Medicine, and Housing)

3. Eat, Pray, Love . . . and Then Get Fired for Spending
So Much Time Away from Work

4. Chicken Soup for the Soul
Brothers and Soul Sisters: Why Kind, Personal Gestures Aren’t Enough
to Overcome Structural Racism

5. They’re Just Not That Into You: Why Working-Class
Whites Are Rejecting Democrats

6. Your Best Life Is Actually Someone Else’s:
The Politics of Resentment

7. The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing
Mr. Right Wing

8. Friends Without Benefits, or Why Buy the Voter
When You Can Get the Milk for Free?

9. How to Lose Friends and De-Influence People: How the Left
Turns Off the Public and Turns On Itself

10. Republicans Are from Mars,
Democrats Are from Venus

11. Three Cups of Crime Spree: Why the Nonprofit
Sector Is Too Crooked, Self-Aggrandizing,
and Ineffective to Save America

12. The Seven Habits of a Highly Unsuccessful Nation:
Why the US Is Lagging

13. The Granivore’s Dilemma: Can the Foodies
Survive on Foraged Seeds Alone?

14. America’s Virgin/Whore Complex: Our
Obsession with Sex and Shaming

15. A Non-Purpose Driven Life: How Our
Reality TV Culture is Stripping America
of Soul, Sense, and Meaning

16. Deal Breakers: When to Work on a National
Relationship and When to Walk Away

PART II. “THE COUNSELING SESSION”
A TWELVE-STEP PROGRAM FOR FIXING OUR
RELATIONSHIP WITH AMERICA: CONCRETE WAYS TO FIND COMMON GROUND AND TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY TO SOLVE OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS

Step One: “Hi, I’m American . . .
and I’m an Alcoholic / Spend-aholic / Gun-aholic /
War-aholic / Selfie-aholic”

Step Two: Breaking Good: How the Nation Can
Create a “Responsibility-for-All” Society

Step Three: We the Voters—How We Can All
Own American Politics Again

Step Four: Mr. Smith, Ms. Sanchez, Miss Patel, Ms. Jones,
and Mr. Wang Go to Washington: How All of Us Need
to Make Political Activity a Noble Calling Again

Step Five: If Corporations Are People, Make Them
Good People: Holding Businesses Accountable

Step Six: We Are the World: Why We Need to
Bolster the Planet to Fix America

Step Seven: From the Middle Out:
Rebuilding the Working Class

Step Eight: How to Overcome Depression with Feathers
(Or, A Trope about Hope and How It Will Defeat Poverty)

Step Nine: Beyond Foodies: Ensuring a
Cornucopia for All of Us

Step Ten: Outfoxing Fox: How to Make News, Social Media,
and All Society Accountable

Step Eleven: We Still Can Overcome: Movement-Building
for the Twenty-First Century

Step Twelve: The Activist Patriot—It’s Up to You

PART III. “FINDING CLOSURE”

Appendix: Organizations that Fight Back . . .
and Make a Difference!

Acknowledgments

Notes